USAF Lt Col writes paper on feasibility of Death Star

[Gormagon]

The Death star is way over done. Sun crusher is better.

The sheer mass of the Death Star makes it an engineering nightmare....

What they should have done is just build the weapons system with engines and a power core. Similar to the super laser but perhaps 1/3 the power,(Or even less) it would still wipe out all life on a world and crack it open but it would be much cheaper rather then building the entire station and miles of Dura-steel armor.

Lasers are so inefficient however. To vaporize the mass of a planet like Alderran which would have had a nickle/iron core and plenty of metal veins....it would take about 10^35 joules to destroy a planet? A friend of mine said that on another post.

[MaverickSawyer]

...the new reality is that while captain america is standing tall on the lookout for red skull, some kid comes along and kicks him in the nuts.

[DigiFluid]

Similar to the super laser but perhaps 1/3 the power,(Or even less) it would still wipe out all life on a world and crack it open but it would be much cheaper rather then building the entire station and miles of Dura-steel armor.

IIRC that's what the superlaser on the Death Star Prototype did. Or maybe I'm thinking of the one on the Darksaber. Someone help me out here

[Gormagon]

The Darksaber battlestation was a superweapon built by the crime lord Durga the Hutt in 12 ABY. A member of the Besadii kajidic, Durga wanted to use the superweapon to hold ransom entire planets and spread his influence throughout the galaxy. Based on the set of plans for the original Death Star battlestation stolen by Durga from the former Imperial Information Center on the galactic capital of Coruscant, the Darksaber was designed by the engineer Bevel Lemelisk, the creator of the Death Star and a number of other superweapons. Lemelisk adjusted the plans to the Hutt's wishes, removing all the Imperial padding and leaving only the central superlaser weapon, encased in a cylindrical durasteel shell. The resulting shape closely resembled that of the lightsaber, the traditional weapon of the Jedi Knights, so Lemelisk christened his creation accordingly, the Darksaber.

It had a super laser as well, as do the super star destroyers like the Executor or Eclipse.

But my point is that instead of building these huge ships or stations just build a whole bunch of basic models. Weapon array, shields/some armor, power core and engine system.

[Galileo_Galilee]

You guys realize, the prototype is still out there. I'm not sure if the Death Star in EDp IV was the prototype.

[MaverickSawyer]

No, it wasn't. It was located in the Maw Facility near Kessel. It was destroyed by one of the black holes, along with the Sun Crusher, in one of the early EU novels.

[Gormagon]

Was there more then one Sun crusher? I forget.

[DigiFluid]

I believe it was just the one, in the Jedi Academy trilogy.